Oh what a beautiful evening

So of course I watched the Oscars. How could I not? Even if didn't watch every year, they had Hugh Jackman host. I love him. He was awesome hosting the Tonys, he's dreamy, he can sing and dance. The Oscars didn't really need to try to get me to watch, but man. Hugh Jackman.

And he didn't disappoint. I liked the show, overall. Liked the opening number, particularly the admission of not seeing The Reader. Now, you'd think that I'd like the salute to movie musicals. I love musicals. I love production numbers. I love montages. I love Hugh Jackman. There's nothing bad here, right? Yet, as I watched, I was trying to figure out why it left me cold. It got to "You Can't Stop the Beat" from Hairspray, which I adore, and I was like, "This should be awesome. What's wrong?" I got annoyed at that point because the tempo of the song was much slower than it should've been. I just feel like it wasn't put together as well as it could've been. And then Hugh said that it was done by Baz Luhrmann. And there was my answer. His stuff just leaves me cold. I almost walked out in the middle of Romeo + Juliet and was meh on Moulin Rouge, for all that it had an adorable Ewan McGregor singing. Someone make him step away from songs I like, OK?

One thing I'm not sure about is having the past winners present the nominations. There were times when it really worked (Shirley MacLaine/Anne Hathaway), but a lot of the time, I was kind of like, "Blah blah blah." And it did prevent us from getting clips of the nominated performances. But, man, I wouldn't take that moment away from Anne Hathaway and the others for whom it was clearly very meaningful. So I don't know. Maybe make it shorter. However, I'd like to point out that since we didn't get clips from the movie, this didn't extend the show, like some people claim.

The other thing I don't know about is adding the clips from previous Oscar winners to the Best Picture clips. Again, I get why they did it. It just didn't always work. I'd put that in the "Interesting Experiment, But Let's Scrap It For Next Year" pile.

In all, though, I quite enjoyed it. Because, really, anything that involves Hugh Jackman singing can't be bad.

Plus, I've totally seen a bunch of members of the royal family!

Now that I have a bit of spare time, I'm finally tackling the backlog on my DVR. Which means that I just got around to watching Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work. (It aired originally in November. My DVR backlog is nothing to my Netflix queue--290 and counting!) It reminded me, not surprisingly, of Windsor Castle: A Royal Year, which premiered not long before Monarchy started filming. One thing I realized was that I could never be a royal, because I am far too lazy. These folks are crazy busy. I imagine it's part of a PR campaign for the monarchy...though, have these aired in Britain, too? Because otherwise, there's no point, other than to satiate Americans' curiousity about the monarchy. In one part of Monarchy, it addresses the anti-monarchy sentiment, and one guy talks about how Americans like the queen, but (paraphrasing) when he asks whether we'd want to take her back with us, we're all, "No! But we like her. It's so quaint!" and Britain isn't "quaint," it's a powerful nation and even spending 60 pence a person per year on the monarchy is too much.

OK, I cop to traveling around England and thinking that towns are cute. (Because they are!) But I don't really think that the monarchy is "quaint." The negative reaction of Americans toward bringing home a queen quite possibly has something to do with our country's history and less about being "quaint." And some of the money being spent on the monarchy is going to be spent even if there is no royalty--there will still be state dinners and stuff that need to be paid for. Plus, there is something to be said for having separate heads of state and heads of government.

What I found particularly interesting was how people reacted to meeting the Queen. A typical interaction would have the Queen ask a few question and the person answer. Afterward, they would invariably say that she seemed incredibly interested. There was even a point where she had dinner, and the chef was all, "She loved it! Enjoyed every bite!" There seems to be quite a bit of projection going on, but at the same time, this is a woman who clearly is very good at her job. It's impressive.

And yes, clearly, I'm pro-monarchy. This is possibly my Anglophilia rearing its head. But still. The entire family came across as very likable, and I can't help but wish good things for them.

No, seriously. Just don't buy it.

I saw Confessions of a Shopaholic today and quite enjoyed it--more than I thought I would. I've read all of the books and though this was quite different, it was still good. A bit more slap-sticky, but good. I'm a bit disappointed that they moved it from London to New York, particularly since I can't quite tell why. Does Yves St. Laurent not have stores in London? I find that hard to believe. Plus, Hugh Dancy is British. Isla Fisher isn't American. Why the change? I can understand why they made some of the changes they did (including making Luke Becky's boss--I don't like the change, it's a bit icky--but I get why they did it), but I hate when movie versions of books make random changes like that. Maybe New York is cheaper to film in? Anyway. Isla Fisher was really appealing, as was Hugh Dancy, and even the three random middle-aged guys who were there seemed to enjoy it. So I recommend it. The books can be frustrating at times, but I like Sophie Kinsella's books, so if not these books, pick up one of her other books. The nice thing about the movie is that there's less time to be frustrated by Becky's actions ("Stop buying things!").

I'm not going to get into my thoughts on the book itself

I had heard about the cute trailer for He's Just Not That Into You, and I finally got around to watching it tonight. (You can view it here, by clicking on "Click here for the Top 10 Chick Flick Cliches not found in the movie".) It was, I admit, pretty darn cute, though I do already have very fond feelings for Bradley Cooper, leftover from Alias and I Want to Marry Ryan Banks. I have mixed feelings about Justin Long; I liked him on Ed, but dislike the Mac commercials (though that hasn't made me dislike John Hodgman; of course, I like Hodgman much more than Long in those commercials). I have no opinion of Kevin Connolly. But anyway.

So I was watching the trailer and enjoying it, but then I started wondering about the audience. Ostensibly it's for guys who are reluctant to see chick flick with their girlfriends/dates. The trailer consists of the three guys acting out chick flick cliches, which means that in a few of the clips, they're each other's love interest--there aren't any girls in the trailer. So I was trying to figure out how the target audience for this would react. At first I figured that they would laugh; you know, "Heh, those guys are acting gay!" But then I wondered whether this audience would be uncomfortable with it--like the guys who hate when a movie that's included scenes of full-frontal nudity of women also has a brief shot of a guy's naked butt. I honestly don't know.

Fab hats FTW!

I hit my Toby Stephens-phase portion of my Netflix queue (and since I know that I discovered him in Jane Eyre, I can pretty much figure out exactly how long these movies have languished in my queue, but that's too depressing) (2 or 3 years! Whee!), and just finished blowing through Cambridge Spies. I definitely recommend it, and not just because Toby looks fabulous in it--though he does, and also wears a lot of fantastic hats.

Anyway, it's about these four friends who met at Cambridge who become spies for the USSR. (Interestingly enough, it was actually a group of five; the movie does include the fifth, but he only shows up briefly in one of the four episodes. The History Channel special about the real Cambridge Spies, included on the second disc, is well worth the watch.) The acting is great. The series starts off a bit slowly, and it can be a bit confusing at times, but it's interesting seeing a show portraying enemy spies in such a sympathetic light.

It's weird looking back on the Cold War in some ways. Watching the movie, I was like, "Oh, boys, you're so misguided," but couldn't get really worked up about what they were doing. Again, it was told from their point of view, but still. I'm sure that people died--people on our side died--because of their actions. They could've helped get Lee Stetson (a.k.a. Scarecrow from Scarecrow & Mrs. King) killed, if they had come around a bit later and he wasn't, you know, fictional. But I guess it's the luxury of looking at this from the vantage point of 18 years after the USSR officially dissolved. And also knowing that we had spies, too. So it was even! And fair.

...I don't know. Maybe I just need to go back to the Spy Museum.

Disclaimer: I definitely know that spying is wrong. Also? The Soviet Union bad. Also, I got confused because they got into Communism to fight Fascism, but kept at the spying after the end of WWII. Also, the King in the movie has a weird speech impediment, and now I want to know whether he actually did. He must have, right? They wouldn't randomly add that.

Anyway, seriously, if I think of them as spies for, say, al Qaeda, I'd get upset. It's just that at this point, the Soviet Union seems almost quaint, if that makes sense.

U! S! A!

I was in my car this morning, and the radio was playing "Little Pink Houses" by John Mellencamp. Then "American Woman" came on. And it got me wondering whether other countries have as many rock songs about their own country as the U.S. does. I mean, we have a lot. Granted, a few of them aren't necessarily complimentary to the country (e.g., "Born in the USA"), and some, like "American Woman", are anti-war and such. And what's interesting is that "American Woman" is by the Guess Who, who are Canadian.

Now, I'm not talking folk ("I'm Proud to Be an American", "God Bless the U.S.A.") or even country ("Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue"). No, I'm talking rock. Growing up, "America" by Neil Diamond was my favorite song. (I've always been cool!) I mean, there's "American Girl" by Tom Petty and "American Idiot" by Green Day and "The Hands That Built America" by U2.

I really don't have anything of substance to say on this; I just find it interesting. I find it really interesting that there are many rock songs about America by bands that are from other countries. I'm sure some U.S. bands have written songs about other countries, but right now, the only one springing to mind is "Blame Canada" from the South Park movie.